The Arizona sentinel., 1887-04-09
A CARNIVAL OF DEATH.
Some Of the Horrors of the Famine Pre-
 vailing in India in ISTS-19.


 vailing in India in 1S1S-79.
 After being delayed a week at Jooty, where at the Government expense l lived sumptuously, I was ordered to Madras, where I did not fare so well, but was finally ordered to Tinnevelly. the most southern state in all India. From thence I was sent to Ootipa- daram, where the collector had estab- lished a huge camp, and where ten thousand to twelve thousand paupers were being fed. The village of Ooti- padaram sits on huge treeless plain, which plain in better years raised vast amounts of grain, and the village was the most thriving of that district. But now its rich Brahmins were dead. Used to life of ease and plenty, they had been the first to succumb to want and privation, and there in their houses with their hands .clasped across their knees, or writhing on the floor in agony, they had gasped out their breath calling on God for succor Women who were once beautiful lay dead with their children in their arms, and on the putrid bodies -on the grim skeletons-lay golden .anklets, bracelets, earrings and the fine golden platter which adorns the wealthy Brahmin woman's head. Jewels fit for crowned heads lay scat tered about-jewels which had been offered for handful of millet, and had been refused, and through all this gloom and misery stalked the profess sional beggar, poking and prying to find something with which to stay the gnawing at his vitals.
 There were thousands of human be- ings busy making the camp, and very little food. But the grain was coming, coming as fast as oxen could drag it, and the many hungry people, elated with hope. strug- gled bravely against death. In all that vast and starving crowd there was no murmur Once or twice an importun- ate woman would catch my leg and ask whether Itwere true that the grain was coming. No shudder of horror electrified their frames when thrice each day the carts laden with dead would pass from out of the camp and dump the bodies in the long trenches. At last the grain train came. Every pauper outside the camp was driven in and securely locked up within the fence. The grain was unloaded-but the food they so anxiously wanted to eat was denied many 8 one. The strain in many instances was too great. The joy was too violent, and in sight of plenty they died. And after the arrival of the grain the camp was organized and two daily doles were made-one in the morning and one in the evening. The dole consisted of rice and chile water, and after the first days food the mortality in the camp was frightful. It rose to over one thousand a day. The paupers were ranged in long lines; each was furnished with a platter, into which was thrown the rice and then sprinkled with chile water. Ere the hand could convey the food to the mouth the expectant eater would be dead; others whilst gulping down their food would be seized with convulsions; some who had finished their rice would finger an hour or so, their stomachs swollen to an incredible size, and die raving maniacs; some would dash their heads against the ground delirious from joy. In every horrid shape stood death death in every revolting and hideous form.-Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.